After a rain storm can be the best time for macro photography. The colors are saturated and the drops of water add a unique effect to the image.This was taken yesterday in between rain showers. I shot this using an aperture of f/3.2 and focused on the rain drops on one of the leaves. The saturated colors and composition make this one a keeper for me.
How do you turn this ….
Into this?
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While in the helicopter, we made a wide orbit to achieve a different angle for the shot of Westconn Aviation. This orbit put us right over the HU-16 Albatross that is parked at the field. It is easily one of the most prominent aircraft on the field, and one I would certainly like to get a flight in! If you are driving by on I-84, take a look towards the control tower and you will likely see this beast. Just a simple shot converted to B&W using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Motion in my aviation images is so crucial to tell the story. With fixed-wing aircraft, it is fairly simple, but with helicopters, it is a whole new ball game! Helicopters have a lot of moving parts. You have the main rotor and the tail rotor. The tail rotor is cake to blur, but that main rotor can be challenging. Because of the size and speed, it is next to impossible to get a full or even 1/4 rotation out of it! So all you can do is push the shutter speed down as low as you are comfortable with and hope you get a satisfactory blur. This photo of a Robinson R44 (which is the same type of helicopter that I went up in to get the aerial shots of Westconn Aviation) was photographed using a shutter speed of 1/50.
I basically held the shutter down for the whole flight, in an attempt to capture every light and aircraft angle. As we entered a sharp bank, I composed the shot to include our right wing as well as the second Stearman, plus the inclusion of the ground to give a sense of angle. This image doesn’t do the flying that the two pilots did justice. This was about as far away as the two planes were the whole flight. At times our right wing blocked my view of the plane!
I was at Westconn Aviation for their first Saturday Fly-In and BBQ. Before the crowds arrived, I was given the opportunity to go up in a helicopter with the door off and photograph the Westconn Aviation hangar and flight line of vintage aircraft. From left to right: T-6 Texan, L-39 Albatros, SNJ Texan, Twin Beech, and PT-17 Stearman (the plane I flew in for the Air2Air shoot.)
The shot in the previous post is what I was looking out to as we came onto our final approach. I was flying in the yellow Stearman, photographing this red Stearman as we did formation passes over the airport. It was an extremely tough shoot. The light was about the worst it could be, but when you have an opportunity like this, you make due! I had some decent light here as the Stearman makes a slight adjustment and banks to the left. Oh yeah, this was shot using a 24mm lens! That’s how close he was! I was able to keep the camera steady enough to be able to use a slow enough shutter speed to get the full prop blur. Between the wind buffeting the camera and the tightness of the cockpit, it was quite the challenge keeping the camera steady.
I’ll let this image serve as a precursor to the next blog post. Had a great Saturday shooting!
That is often the question I ask myself when choosing a lens for an aviation shoot. I normally go with the telephoto, simply because it compresses the background and helps to eliminate any clutter. But what would the answer be when there is no background clutter to deal with? My answer is shoot with both lenses! In this particular image, you can see a P-51C Mustang on the flight line at Fantasy of Flight. If you scroll down the page, you can see the same shot done with a telephoto lens. I prefer the results from the telephoto, but that is just my personal opinion. Please do let me know which version you prefer.
